In Good King Charles's Golden Days - By Bernard Shaw
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
In Good King
Charles’s
Golden Days
By Bernard Shaw
CShaw Festival
ONNECTIONS
Study Guide
The Shaw Story 2
The Players 3
The Story 4
The Playwright 5
Who’s Who 6-7
Director’s Notes 8
Designer’s Notes 9-10
Production History 11
World of the Play 12-16
Did You Know? 17
Say What? 18
Sources 19
Activities 20-32
THE SHAW STORY
MANDATE
The Shaw Festival is the only theatre in the world which exclusively focuses on plays
by Bernard Shaw and his contemporaries, including plays written during, or about the
period of Shaw’s lifetime (1856 – 1950).
The Shaw Festival’s mandate also includes:
• Uncovered Gems – digging up undiscovered theatrical treasures, or plays which
were considered major works when they were written but which have since been
unjustly neglected
• American Classics – we continue to celebrate the best of American theatre
• Musicals – musical treats either from, or set during the period of our mandate
• Canadian Work – to allow us to hear and promote our own stories, and our own
WHAT MAKES points of view about the mandate period.
SHAW SPECIAL
MEET THE COMPANY — OUR ENSEMBLE
• Our Actors: All Shaw performers contribute to the sense of ensemble, much like the
players in an orchestra. Often, smaller parts are played by actors who are leading
performers in their own right, but in our “orchestra,” they support the central action
helping to create a density of experiences that are both subtle and informative.
• Our Designers: Every production that graces the Shaw Festival stages is built “from
scratch,” from an original design. Professional designers lead teams who collaborate
with each production’s director to create set, costumes, and lighting designs that
complement the play’s text.
• Our Music: Music played an important role in Bernard Shaw’s life – in fact, he wrote
music criticism for several years under the pseudonym Corno di Bassetto. Just as the
reach of musical theatre is vast and manifold, so is The Shaw’s approach - present-
ing Brecht and Weill, Rodgers and Hart, and everything in between.
• Our Play Development: The goals of Shaw’s Play Development Program include: 1) to
Festival Theatre develop new adaptations and translations that will tell classic stories in a contempo-
rary way; 2) to produce new plays alongside those of Shaw and his contemporaries.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
As Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell says, “We all know the man can talk, but Bernard
Shaw is also one of the most prescient, provocative, sparklingly articulate writers in
the English language. His words and ideas, expressed in plays that are well-known,
such as this season’s The Devil’s Disciple, or in plays that are not so familiar but no less
Court House Theatre interesting, have extraordinary relevance today. It is a joy to draw attention to those
ideas and bring them to life on our stages.”
OUR THEATRES
The Shaw Festival presents plays in three distinctive theatres. The Festival Theatre
with 869 seats is The Shaw’s flagship theatre; the historic Court House where The
Shaw first began performing seats 327; and the Royal George Theatre, modeled after
an Edwardian opera house, holds 328.
THE SHAW’S COAT OF ARMS
In 1987, on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary, the Shaw Festival
became the second theatre company in the world to be granted a Coat of
Arms by the College of Heralds. A large painted sculpture of our Coat of
Arms adorns the lobby of the Festival Theatre.
Royal George Theatre
C ONNECTIONS 2
Shaw Festival Study Guide
CStudy Guide
ONNECTIONS
THE PLAYERS
A practical, hands-on James, Duke of York ANDREW BUNKER
resource for the King Charles II BENEDICT CAMPBELL
classroom which Louise de Kéouaille, LISA CODRINGTON
contains background
Duchess of Portsmouth
information for the
play, suggested Nell Gwynn NICOLA CORREIA-DAMUDE
themes for discus- Mrs Basham MARY HANEY
sion, and Ontario Barbara Villiers, CLAIRE JULLIEN
curriculum-based
Duchess of Cleveland
activities. Designed
by educators and Sally ESTHER MALONEY
theatre profession- Queen Catherine of Braganza LAURIE PATON
als, the activities and George Fox RIC REID
themes for discussion
Isaac Newton GRAEME SOMERVILLE
are organized in
modules that can be Godfrey Kneller KEN JAMES STEWART
used independently
or interdependently
according to the class
level and time
availability.
In Good King
Charles’s Golden
Days is recom-
mended for students
THE ARTISTIC TEAM
in grade 9 and higher.
Director EDA HOLMES
This guide was Set Designer CAMELLIA KOO
written and compiled
Costume Designer MICHAEL GIANFRANCESCO
by Suzanne Merriam
and Amanda Tripp. Lighting Designer BONNIE BEECHER
Additional materials
were provided by
Joanna Falck, Eda
Holmes, Camellia
Koo, and Michael
THE STORY
Gianfrancesco
A philosopher, a religious leader, an artist, an actress and a King meet at Sir
Cover: Julie Martell,
Isaac Newton’s house. The set-up for a joke? No, it’s Shaw’s Restoration
Claire Jullien, Lisa
Codrington comedy, where everything from geometry to art to love potions are
Photo by Shin Sugino debated and discussed by some of history’s leading figures. If only King
Charles’s mistresses would stop interrupting!
Previews April 17
Opens May 21
Closes October 9
C ONNECTIONS 3
Shaw Festival Study Guide
“
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days
Such a lot of A True History That Never Happened
By Bernard Shaw
interesting
people lived
T
he play’s subtitle, A True History That Never Happened , gives us an insight
then and he is into Shaw’s almost whimsical approach to this fascinating and humorous play. In
throwing writing it, he took the opportunity to play the ‘what if’ game: what might have
”
happened had several prominent men of history met at the height of their powers?
them all in What if a leading scientist had a painter, a religious leader and a King to his house for
together to a good discussion? And what if this discussion was, on occasion, interrupted by one
”
or several of the King’s mistresses? The result was In Good King Charles’s Golden
sink or swim Days - a witty and decidedly Shavian take on some great men (and women) of
history.
Charlotte Shaw The men that gather in the play include the host for the gathering, the great philoso-
(wife of Bernard pher and scientist Sir Isaac Newton. His guests are leading portrait painter Godfrey
Shaw) Kneller, religious rebel and founder of the Quakers George Fox, King Charles II and
Charles’s argumentative brother, James II. Between them they discuss almost every-
thing: questions of leadership (all of them being leaders in his own field) along with
arguments about art versus science versus religion. Even King Charles expresses his
excitement in anticipation of the discussion:
Charles: I confess to unbounded curiosity to hear what George Fox can have to say
to Isaac Newton. It is not altogether an impertinent curiosity. My trade, which is a
very unusual one, requires that I should know what Tom, Dick and Harry have to say
to one another. I find you two gentlemen much more interesting and infinitely more
important.
And into this mix of great men, Shaw introduces a few great women - to “relieve the
intellectual tension”. Nell Gwynn, the famous comic actress; Barbara Villiers, Duch-
ess of Cleveland, one of Charles’ most notorious mistresses who had five of his ille-
gitimate children and held great power in his court; Louise De Kerouaille, Duchess of
Portsmouth, a mistress from France who was known for maintaining her ‘baby face’
good looks throughout her life.
They each come to Sir Isaac Newton’s house looking for Charles, and none is too
happy to find the other there. However, they hold their own with the great men and
The Story
bring their own insights to discussions of science, religion, art, and love. When the
Duchess accuses Charles of having been unfaithful to her “a thousand times”,
Newton calculates with absolute mathematical precision that King Charles would
have to be almost three hundred years old for that to be true: “Figures cannot mock,
because they cannot feel. That is their great quality and their great fault,” he tells
her.
As in last year’s hit Getting Married, they fall into both serious and comic debate
about big topics–it’s another great discussion play that only Shaw could write.
C ONNECTIONS 4
Shaw Festival Study Guide
BERNARD SHAW
An acclaimed dramatist, critic, and social reformer Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin
where he grew up in an atmosphere of genteel poverty. He attended four schools
and was tutored by a clerical uncle, but left his formal education behind him at the
age of fifteen. He developed a wide knowledge of music, art, and literature under the
influence of his mother, a singer and vocal music teacher, and as a result of his visits
to the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1876 he moved to London, where he spent his
afternoons in the British Museum and his evenings pursuing his informal education in
the form of lectures and debates. Shaw declared himself a socialist in 1882 and
joined the Fabian Society in 1884. He soon distinguished himself as a fluent and
effective public speaker, as well as an incisive and irreverent critic of music, art, and
drama.
Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses, was produced privately in 1892 for the
members of the Independent Theatre Society. Shaw achieved his first commercial
success with the American premiere of The Devil’s Disciple, the income from which
enabled him to quit his job as a drama critic and to make his living solely as a
playwright.
In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress whom he had met
through his Fabian friends Beatrice and Sidney Webb.
Harley Granville-Barker, a young actor-manager, helped to advance Shaw’s popular-
ity in London with his famous repertory experiment at the Royal Court Theatre from
1904 to 1907. Of the “thousand performances” of this venture, over 700 were of
plays by Shaw, including the premieres of John Bull’s Other Island (1904), Man and
Superman (1905), Major Barbara (1905), and The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906). Shaw’s
best-known play, Pygmalion, was first performed in 1913. Two generations later, it
attained even greater fame as the musical My Fair Lady.
The Playwright
During World War I, Shaw’s anti-war speeches and a controversial pamphlet entitled
Common Sense About the War made him very unpopular as a public figure. In
Heartbreak House (performed 1920) Shaw exposed, in a country-house setting on
the eve of the War, the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation responsible for the
carnage. Next came Back to Methuselah (1922) and Saint
Joan (1923), acclaim for which led to the awarding of the
Nobel Prize for Literature in1925. Shaw continued to write
plays and essays until his death in 1950 at the age of 94.
OWN “
IN HIS
WORDS...
A bachelor, an Irishman, a vegetar-
ian, a fluent liar, a social-democrat,
a lecturer and debater, a lover of
music, a fierce opponent of the
present status of women, and an
insister on the seriousness of art
” C ONNECTIONS 5
Shaw Festival Study Guide
Who’s Who
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days
*KING CHARLES II (1630 -1685) King of England from 1660-1685. He was briefly
King of Scotland after his father’s execution in 1649. But Charles’s invasion of
England in 1651 ended in his defeat at Worcester, followed by a humiliating flight to
France. Two years after Oliver Cromwell’s death in 1658, a reconstituted Parliament
restored the throne to Charles - on Parliament’s terms. (Shaw described Charles II as
“the first king of England whose kingship was purely symbolic”.) In the Restoration
period under this “Merry Monarch”, the arts and sciences flourished in reaction to
their suppression during Cromwell’s Commonwealth.
*SIR ISAAC NEWTON (1642 -1727) Newton's reflecting telescope, made in 1668,
brought him to the attention of the scientific community. In1672 he was made a
Fellow of the Royal Society. He also studied and published works on history,
theology and alchemy. In 1687, with the support of his friend the astronomer
Edmond Halley, Newton published his single greatest work, the 'Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathmatica' ('Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy').
This showed how a universal force, gravity, applied to all objects in all parts of the
universe. By the early 1700s he was the dominant figure in British and European
scientific societies.
*SIR GODFREY KNELLER (1646-1723) Born in Germany, Kneller studied in
Amsterdam and arrived in England around the year 1675. He became the leading
portrait painter in England during the late 17th century, and was principle painter to
the King. In the preface to In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, Shaw admits that it
was William Hogarth, and not Kneller, who said “the line of beauty is a curve” -
many decades after the time of this play.
*JAMES, DUKE OF YORK (1633-1701) Became James II after the death of his
brother Charles II. The fourth and last of the Stuart kings, James was very unpopular
due to his high-handed attitudes and his Catholic sympathies. His reign lasted only
three years. In 1685 he fought off an invasion by the Duke of Monmouth, Charles’s
eldest illegitimate son. In 1688 some prominent Englishmen invited James’s Protes-
tant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William of Orange to seize the throne,
in what became known as the Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution.
* Portrait painted by Godfrey Kneller
6
GEORGE FOX (1624 -1691) Founded the ‘Quakers’ or Society of Friends. Puzzled by
the inconsistency between what Christians said they believed and the way they
behaved, Fox became a religious activist at the age of 19. He was imprisoned eight
times for preaching views that annoyed the religious and political establishment of
his time. Fox's aim was to inspire people to live by the principles of their faith. He
objected to the hierarchical structure and the rituals of the churches of his time. He
thought that believers should have a direct relationship with God and that no person
(priests, for example) and no thing should come between them. Not surprisingly,
these views infuriated the mainstream churches, and Quakers were persecuted in
Britain until 1689.
CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA (1638 -1705) Wife of Charles II, was Queen of England
until Charles’s death in 1685. She had no children. In 1678, a group of Protestants led
by Titus Oates invented a “Popish Plot” which accused Catherine of complicity in a
plot to kill Charles and place his Catholic brother James on the throne. In the end this
“plot” was discredited and Catherine was cleared of any wrongdoing. Catherine
helped reconcile Charles to the Catholic faith shortly before he died. In 1692 she
returned to Portugal, where she was regent for her ailing brother King Pedro II.
NELL GWYNN (1650 -1687) According to legend, she began her theatrical career as
an orange-seller. Her vivacity and charm soon made her Drury Lane’s leading
comedienne. Though virtually illiterate, Nell was an enchanting presence on the stage,
especially admired for her impudent prologues and epilogues. In 1670 she retired
from the stage, becoming the King’s mistress and bearing him two sons. On his
deathbed, Charles is said to have begged his brother James: “Let not poor Nelly
starve”. James paid off Nell’s debts and provided her with a generous pension for the
rest of her short life.
LOUISE DE KÉROUAILLE (1649 -1734) Was reputed to be a French spy. It is more
likely that she served Charles in gaining secret financial support from France’s “Sun
King,” Louis XIV, for Charles’s administration. She was made Duchess of Portsmouth
in 1673, the year after she bore Charles a son.
BARBARA VILLIERS (1641 -1709) Duchess of Cleveland after 1670, was Charles II’s
favourite mistress for the decade following his Restoration. The King acknowledged
five of her seven children as his own. After losing his favour to Louise de Kéroualle,
Villiers consoled herself with other lovers such as John Churchill, later first Duke of
Marlborough, and the playwright William Wycherley. In 1677 she settled in Paris,
returning to England just before Charles’s death in 1685.
7Eda Holmes talks about directing
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days
Q: What’s your vision of the play?
A: My vision for the play centers around two things 1) the notion of people who
have ideas that are so full of passion that they are driven to arguments, fits, and fist
fights and 2) a time machine that allows these historical figures to exist fully alive
forever so that through them we can wrestle with the basic issues of politics,
religion, science, and human relations with a view that looks both back at history and
forward to our own world.
Q: Who would you suggest as the ideal audience for your production?
A: I suppose the ideal audience for this play would be anyone with a passion for
science, politics, religion or art. Shaw himself said that the perfect audience for his
plays would be a pack of philosophers — so really that means anyone who is thrilled
by thinking.
Q: Have you ever directed this playwright’s work before?
A: No!
Q: What do you find most interesting about this playwright? About the play?
A: I am overwhelmed by his unquenchable curiosity about humanity; I am charmed
by his imagination; I am humbled by his political commitment as a socialist; I am in
Director’s Notes
awe of his extraordinary intellect that never shrank from challenging assumptions
about the world. In Good King Charles’s Golden Days is like a celebration of his
curiosity, imagination, political thought, and humanity. And it is funny, which is
truly a feat of genius.
Q: What do you want us to tell people about your work on this play?
A That I tried really hard.
Q: How accessible will our production be for students and what do you want
younger audience members to know about the play’s message and your direction?
A: My direction will be as accessible as the play. I would like the younger audience
members to come away with a notion of ideas being extremely passion-filled and
exciting. I don’t think that it is as accessible as say, Shaw’s Arms and the Man
though — there is a lot of British history in it — but the outfits are great.
C ONNECTIONS 8
Shaw Festival Study GuideCamellia Koo
talks about designing the set
Q: Can you describe your vision for In Good King Charles’s Golden Days?
A: The play is a collision of humanity and a collision of ideas, so we used Newton's
theories on gravity and his model for the universe/solar system as our main
inspiration. The set resembles both an orrery, a model/mobile of the solar system, as
well as the elliptical shape of a planet's orbit, while at the same time, placing us
slightly abstractly, as opposed to naturalistically in Newton's study. The entire set
floats in a void, like a celestial body does in space.
In Act II, we go to a more intimate location and another form of orrery comes into
play.
The characters in the play circle around each other, both verbally and physically, and
then spontaneously break into fist fights, and at the centre of it all sits King Charles II,
in disguise but ever present; the planets elliptically orbiting around the sun, on inevi-
table collision courses with each other.
Q: Have you previously designed plays by Bernard Shaw?
A: I designed Heartbreak House for a set design project while in second year of
theatre school. It was only a paper project (texts analysis, research, drafting, making a
maquette and doing a final design presentation of the model). In Good King Charles's
Golden Days will be the first produced/staged play of Bernard Shaw that I've de-
signed.
Designer’s Notes
Q: What do you find most striking about In Good King Charles’s Golden Days?
A: I love what the characters talk about, argue about, in this play...religion vs. science,
war vs. peace, circles vs. ellipses, straight lines vs. curves...
Q: What do you want audience members to know about your design?
A: I hope the audience members pick up on the subtle details of the set that reflect
what the characters talk about. Also, Newton's study is full of his many wide ranging
experiments, but the whole room is also a sort of bell jar for the collision of
characters that Bernard Shaw wrote to exist inside it.
The orrery model (left) is one of the images that influenced the design of the set. A
model of the set (maquette) is pictured on the right.
C ONNECTIONS 9
Shaw Festival Study GuideMichael Gianfrancesco
talks about designing the costumes
Q: Can you describe your vision for In Good King Charles’s Golden Days?
A: The characters in the play were real people, so I feel it is my responsibility to
capture who these people really were, and portray them in a recognizable way, but
also in a theatrical way that suits the tone of the script and the way that Shaw has
portrayed them. Inspired by the set design, the director and I looked at
photographs of planets in the solar system, which inspired the colour palette for
the costumes.
Q: Have you previously designed plays by Bernard Shaw?
A: This is my first time designing a Shaw play. I'm inspired by the script which I was
not previously familiar with, and am excited to be a part of such a great tradition
here at the Shaw Festival.
Q: What do you find most striking about In Good King Charles’s Golden Days?
A: I am intrigued by the improbability of the situation in the play - the fact that all
of these important and fascinating people from the 17th century all end up in one
room discussing ideas that still seem relevant to us today in one way or another.
Q: What do you want audience members to know about your design?
A: While they are certainly inspired and informed by research and paintings from
Designer’s Notes
the period, they are also meant to suit the characters and the individual actors. The
overall feeling and impression of the characters and the period have taken
precedence over complete historical accuracy.
Costume sketches by Michael Gianfrancesco
C ONNECTIONS 10
Shaw Festival Study GuideShaw wrote In Good King Charles’s Golden Days for the Malvern Festival, England,
where it premiered on August 12th, 1939. It appeared in London the following
year. The first North American production was on January 24, 1957 at the
Downtown Theater on New York’s East 4th Street, where it ran for nearly two
years, one of the longest runs of any Shaw play in the USA. One critic wrote, “This
may well be simply Shaw’s funniest play” and James Agate, writing for The
Sunday Times, noted that the play was the best to have “come from the Shavian
loom since Methuselah”. Directed by Eda Holmes (who last season directed The
Little Foxes) the ensemble features Benedict Campbell as King Charles II, Graeme
Somerville as Sir Isaac Newton, Rick Reid as George Fox, and Laurie Paton as
Queen Catherine of Braganza.
Good King Charles was first produced in Canada by the University Alumnae
Dramatic Club on March 15th, 1951, directed by Herbert Whittaker with a cast
that included John Colicos, Ted Follows and William Needles. The Canadian
professional premiere took place at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto on
January 30th, 1969, in a production by an ambitious new venture called Theatre
Toronto (great-grandparent to the Canadian Stage Company). This cast included
some familiar names, such as Dawn Greenhaigh, Nancy Kerr and Richard Monette.
This is the Shaw Festival’s third production of In Good King Charles’s Golden Days.
The cast of the 1981 production included Michael Ball, Irene Hogan, David Schur-
mann and Joseph Ziegler. The cast of the 1997 production included Patricia Ham-
ilton, Peter Hutt, Blair Williams, Guy Bannerman, and Laurie Paton.
Production History
Gordon Rand (James) and Peter Hutt (King
Charles) admire a beautiful portrait as Philippa
Domville (Louise) and Helen Taylor (Nell
Gwynn) look on.
1997 Shaw Fest Production.
Peter Hutt (King Charles) advises Sarah
Orenstein (Queen Catherine) to flee
Excerpt from the January 25, 1957 New Portugal upon his death.
York Times play review, following the 1997 Shaw Fest Production.
North American premiere Photos: Andree Lanthier
C ONNECTIONS 11
Shaw Festival Study GuideSOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days–A True Historical Timeline
1649 Charles I is executed at Whitehall at the climax of the English Civil War.
His son, Charles II is not proclaimed King at this time. England enters a
period known as the English Commonwealth and the country becomes a
de-facto republic, led by Oliver Cromwell
1651 January Charles II is crowned King of Scotland (Scotland and England are
separate kingdoms at this time)
September Following Charles II’s coronation as King of the Scots, he raises
a Scottish army and invades England. Many English royalists support him,
but in a hard-fought battle at Worcester, Oliver Cromwell defeats the
king’s army and Charles flees into exile abroad
1653 December Oliver Cromwell appoints himself as ‘Lord Protector’ of England,
giving himself powers akin to a monarch. His popularity with the army
props up his regime
1658 September Oliver Cromwell dies and is succeeded as Lord Protector by his
son, Richard. The Commonwealth of England collapses into chaos. Charles II
is invited to return from exile
The World of the Play
1660 May Charles II is officially restored to the English throne
1665 March The bubonic plague breaks out in London. The contagion spreads
quickly. By the time the epidemic finishes in December1665, one quarter
of the capital’s inhabitants have perished!
1666 September A fire breaks out in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane in the City of
London, spreading quickly. Within four days, two-thirds of the city has been
destroyed and 65, 000 people are left homeless
1667 June England suffers a humiliating military defeat as Dutch ships attack and
break through an English fleet and raid the naval dockyard at Chatham,
burning and taking many ships. The diarist Samuel Pepys wrote: ‘Never
were people so dejected as they are in the City...this day’
1673 March The Test Act is passed, requiring public office holders to accept com-
munion in the Protestant form and swearing an oath of allegiance recogniz-
ing the monarch as head of the Church of England. The intention of the Act
was to exclude Catholics and dissenters from public office. Charles II’s
brother James, a Catholic, is a victim of the act. He is forced to surrender
his public office as Lord High Admiral as he refuses to take the oath
1685 February Charles II suffers a stroke. On his death-bed he converts to Ca-
tholicism and passes away a few hours later. He is succeeded by his
brother, James, whose adherence to Catholicism makes many of his Protes-
tant subjects suspicious. Nonetheless, James enjoys considerable popularity
when he first accedes to the throne as James II
CONNECTIONS 12
Shaw Festival Study GuideA TRUE HISTORY
THAT NEVER HAPPENED
When the play was first produced, it was described as A History Lesson In Three
Scenes. The subtitle was later changed to A True History That Never Happened.
As T.F. Evans explains it in his article, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days : The
Dramatist as Historian:
Shaw's claim to be writing a ‘True History’ , even if it never happened,
is justified by his ability to re-create the mental atmosphere of the
seventeenth century and to put into the mouths of the representations
of the various historical figures the kinds of arguments and ideas that
they would have expressed had the meeting he imagined actually taken
place.
SO, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
Re-creating the intellectual atmosphere of the 17th century
A revolution of the intellect, known as the Enlightenment, grabbed hold of Europe
between 1600 and 1800. The Enlightenment marked the birth of modern thought,
shaking up the minds of the continent like few things before or since. This revolution
challenged previous ways of understanding reality and sparked a transformation in
The World of the Play
Western European thought.
The writers, philosophers and scientists of the time referred to the period as one of
‘Enlightenment’ because they were making a break with the past and replacing the
obscurity and ignorance of European thought with the ‘light’ of truth. The Pre-
Enlightenment world was an age of faith where explanations for everything from the
weather to personal failure came from the Church and kings ruled by divine right as
representatives of God. The Enlightenment marked the beginning of the end of the
Church’s authority in every arena. Religion would now serve a spiritual purpose and
science was free to begin exploring and explaining the world.
In many ways, revolutions in thought are the most far-reaching. They affect our ideas
about authority, of what is possible, of right and wrong and of humanity’s potential.
Two of the great revolutionary ideas of this period were:
1. the development of empirical thought:
The idea that knowledge should come from evidence gathered from sensory
experience and inductive reasoning. Inductive thinking begins by making
observations and then deciding on general principles to explain those
observations. This model of ‘systematic empirical induction’ made the
scientific revolution possible!
2. the mechanistic worldview:
The mechanization and mathematization of the universe. The mechanistic
worldview holds that the world is ordered and coherent and that the human
mind can grasp that order. The universe is made up of matter and motion
and governed by mechanical laws. The mechanistic universe is understood as
a vast machine of interacting objects, like a giant clock.
In the Western world, we continue to live our daily lives with a worldview that is
largely based on Enlightenment thought.
C ONNECTIONS 13
Shaw Festival Study GuideIsaac Newton
The 1687 publication of his Principia Mathematica was a major event in the history of
Western science and a turning point in the history of Western culture. In this work
he describes:
• The empirical physical law of universal gravitation
• Laws of motion (which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for
the next three centuries).
Natural Laws are laws set by nature and therefore have validity everywhere.
Acceptance of the validity of the mechanistic worldview, empirical thought and the
existence of Natural Laws had far-reaching consequences in the following areas:
Religion
• The mechanistic worldview changed people’s concept of God’s role in the
universe. God went from being understood as an interventionist in human affairs
to the designer of humans and the world they inhabit
• Newton argued that as a designer, God used rational and universal principles that
were available for people to discover
Learning and Education
• Human experience is the foundation of human understanding of truth. People
should trust their experience over the word of ‘authority’.
• Knowledge should be derived from inductive reasoning: making observations
about phenomena and then deriving principles to explain those observations.
The World of the Play
• Human beings can be improved through education and the development of their
rational faculties.
Mathematics
• The development of Probability Theory (Blaise Pascal) developed into a respected
and useful branch of mathematics.
• Probability theory allows us to draw conclusions about the likelihood of potential
events and the underlying mechanics of complex systems.
• This changed the way humans regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an
individual's and society's ability to influence the course of future events.
• It can be used to determine the expected outcome in seemingly random or un-
certain situations - from the chances that a plane will crash to the probability
that a person will win the lottery.
Human Sciences
• Human life (social and individual) can be understood in the same way the natural
world can be understood and manipulated or engineered once the laws that
govern human behavior and interaction are understood.
• Political Science, Social Science, Psychology and other humanistic sciences sprang
from a mechanistic understanding of human beings.
Educated Europeans in the 17th century were part of a conceptual revolution. They
had a new understanding of thought and the human mind, of method, of nature, and
of the uses of knowledge - with which they could create new possibilities for
humanity.
Some key thinkers from this period who shaped our world with the power of their
ideas include scientist Francis Bacon, religious leader John Calvin, and philosophers
Hobbes, Locke, and Pascal. These famous names are also mentioned in the play.
C ONNECTIONS 14
Shaw Festival Study GuideMORALS AND VALUES:
RELATIVE OR ABSOLUTE?
It is generally considered good manners to refrain from discussing religion and politics
in polite conversation. Why? Because people tend to care deeply about their
religious and political convictions, quickly turning polite conversation to explosive
argumentation!
But is polite conversation even half as interesting as emotionally-charged
conversation? Certainly not! Shaw takes a group of very opinionated characters,
representing different scientific, religious, artistic, and political perspectives and
places them in a room together - then we watch as the drama unfolds and sparks fly
in a collision of wildly differing points of view!
As the audience, we are left to judge for ourselves–Is one view right? Is one view
wrong? If so, whose view is correct? Or is it all just a matter of opinion?
Philosophers have argued about these same questions for centuries. Why is the
debate over whether morals and values are relative or absolute so important?
Because a person might go to great lengths to protect what they feel is right and to
preserve those values.
The World of the Play
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days is populated with absolutists. An absolutist
believes there is a single moral standard that applies to all people all of the time. It is
black and white thinking. If two people disagree about what is right, then one of
them is wrong!
A relativist believes that morality is subjective (depending on the individual, their
culture, religion, etc.) and seeks to honour individual perspectives. Relativists argue
that because we can only experience the world and speak from our own particular
point of view, truly objective moral knowledge is impossible to attain.
The relativist and absolutist perspectives are captured in the dialogue between
Charles and his wife Catherine in Act II.
Catherine: Our consciences, which come from God, must all be the same.
Charles: They are not. Do you think God so stupid that he could invent only one sort
of conscience?
Catherine states that there can be only one true religion although England has fifty.
For Charles, this diversity is welcome, “Well, the more the merrier, if only they could
let one another live.” “Have you no conscience?” she asks, and he explains that he
does have one, but not a conscience of the standard British style.
He replies, “No two consciences are the same. No two marriages are the same. No
two love affairs are the same. No two marriages are the same. No two illnesses are
the same. No two children are the same. What is right for one is wrong for the other”.
C ONNECTIONS 15
Shaw Festival Study GuideLITERARY STYLES
Discussion Play
A discussion play is basically ‘all talk’. Many of Shaw’s plays are known for their
involved arguments and sparkling dialogue. Much of the play’s ‘action’ is contained in
the words, ideas and arguments of the characters rather than in plot, action, or
character. The discussion play is a dramatic genre that was introduced and perfected
by Shaw. He has been both praised and criticized for his emphasis on dialogue and
discussion over plot and action.
Shaw has called his own plays Problem Plays, Discussion Dramas, and Plays of Ideas.
He regarded social criticism as the most important function of art and claimed that
his plays were not primarily plays - but instructive arguments in dramatic form.
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days may be one of the most extreme examples of a
comedy discussion play that Shaw wrote. The plot is minimal, and largely made up of
excuses to bring the characters into Isaac Newton’s home so that they can engage in
discussion.
Comedy
The World of the Play
Restoration Comedy came about during Charles II’s restoration to throne. He
supported the arts, where previously theatre had been banned. Charles gave rights to
produce theatre to two theatre companies who competed for audiences which saw
the birth of Restoration comedy - notorious for cynical and sophisticated sexual ex-
plicitness of leisured gentlefolk. The writing was topical and plots were very involved.
The restoration period saw the rise of professional actresses and celebrity actors.
Comedy of Manners grew from Restoration Comedy. This comedic style held the
behaviours of the rich and leisured class up for scrutiny. The writing was savagely
critical of social manners and explored and mocked society in such a way that led to
suggestions of modifying codes of behaviour to deal with the hypocrisies that
manners can hide.
High Comedy appeals to the intellect and arouses thoughtful laughter by exhibiting
the inconsistencies and incongruities of human nature and by displaying the follies of
social manners. Both Restoration Comedy and Comedy of Manners are examples of
High Comedy.
Low Comedy employs burlesque, horseplay, or the representation of low life. It has
been called "elemental comedy," in that it lacks seriousness of purpose or subtlety of
manner and has little intellectual appeal. Some features are: quarreling, fighting,
noisy singing, boisterous conduct in general, boasting, burlesque, trickery, buffoonery,
clownishness, drunkenness, coarse jesting, wordplay, and scolding.
Realism Strongly satirical and sometimes cynical, Realistic Comedy is interested in
both individuals and types, and rests on observation of life. The appeal is intellectual
and the texture is coarse. This comedic style became popular during the reign of
James I.
16The title, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days was taken from the following poem,
entitled The Vicar of Bray
The Vicar of Bray, living under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, Queen Mary, and
Queen Elizabeth, was first a Papist, then a Protestant, then a Papist, then a Protes-
tant again. He was taxed for being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, but
defended himself by saying, “I always kept my principle, which is this, to live and
die the vicar of Bray."
The poem's phrase 'turned the cat in pan' refers to a turn-coat: a soldier who turns
his coat inside-out to show the other side's colours, if they were winning.
The Vicar of Bray
In good King Charles's golden days, When glorious Anne became our queen
When loyalty no harm meant; The Church of England's glory,
A furious High-Church man I was, Another face of things was seen,
And so I gain'd preferment. And I became a Tory:
Unto my flock I daily preach'd, Occasional conformists base,
Kings are by God appointed, I damn'd, and moderation,
And damn'd are those who dare resist, And thought the Church in danger was,
Or touch the Lord's anointed. From such prevarication.
And this is law, I will maintain And this is law, I will maintain
Unto my dying day, sir, Unto my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign, That whatsoer king shall reign,
I will be Vicar of Bray, sir! I will be Vicar of Bray, sir!
When Royal James possess'd the crown, When George in pudding time came o'er,
And popery grew in fashion; And moderate men looked big, sir,
Did You Know?
The penal law I shouted down, My principles I chang'd once more,
And read the declaration: And so became a Whig, sir:
The Church of Rome, I found would fit, And thus preferment I procur'd,
Full well my constitution, From our faith's great defender,
And I had been a Jesuit, And almost every day abjur'd
But for the Revolution. The Pope, and the Pretender.
And this is law, I will maintain And this is law, I will maintain
Unto my dying day, sir, Unto my dying day, sir,
That whatsoer king shall reign, That whatsoer king shall reign,
I will be Vicar of Bray, sir! I will be Vicar of Bray, sir!
When William our deliverer came, The illustrious House of Hanover,
To heal the nation's grievance, And Protestant succession,
I turned the cat in pan again, To these I lustily will swear,
And swore to him allegiance: Whilst they can keep possession:
Old principles I did revoke, For in my faith, and loyalty,
Set conscience at a distance, I never once will falter,
Passive obedience is a joke, George, my lawful king shall be,
A jest is non-resistance. Except the times should alter.
And this is law, I will maintain And this is law, I will maintain
Unto my dying day, sir, Unto my dying day, sir,
That whatsoer king shall reign, That whatsoer king shall reign,
I will be Vicar of Bray, sir! I will be Vicar of Bray, sir!
C ONNECTIONS 17
Shaw Festival Study GuideGlossary
lackey someone who does menial tasks or runs errands for another
paunching belly - a protruding abdomen
fluxions the rates of change of continuously varying quantities
Romish Roman Catholic (an insult)
trull prostitute, strumpet
mitre a headdress worn by bishops and abbots
cabalistic sign a sign belonging to the Cabala (an ancient Hebrew
mystical system)
micapanis soft portion of bread used as a carrier for the active
ingredients of a medication
Popish blockhead Roman Catholic (an insult) blockhead: a fool; stupid
person
Odsfish an oath suggesting taking the Lord’s name in vain
latchet strap or lace for fastening a sandal or shoe to the foot
jackanapes a saucy or mischievous child
pennorth the amount that can be bought for a penny
groundsel a common weed
Noll refers to Oliver Cromwell - who, after the execution of King
Charles I in 1649, ruled as Lord Protector from 1653 until
his death in 1658. He was opposed to the Roman Catholic
Church.
dragoon an army unit mounted on horseback
lawn sleeves the sleeves of lawn (a kind of cotton) forming part of the
dress of an Anglican bishop
Popery (usually an insult) the Roman Catholic Church, esp.
its doctrines, ceremonies, and system of government
mollycoddle a man or boy who is used to being coddled
mummery any performance, ceremony, etc., regarded as absurd, false,
or ostentatious
Say What?
cozenage deception, trickery
fustian pompous or pretentious speech
conventicle a secret or unauthorized meeting, esp. for religious worship,
as those held by Protestant dissenters in England in the 16th
and 17th centuries
chicanery trickery or deception by the use of deceptive reasoning
blue stocking a woman with intellectual or literary interests
camera obscura a darkened enclosure in which images of outside objects are
projected through a small aperture or lens onto a facing
surface
perihelion the point nearest the sun in the orbit of a planet or other
celestial body
philosopher a lover of knowledge (philos “loving” + Sophia “wisdom”)
who seeks to understand and explain the principles of
existence and reality
philosopher’s stone a substance, sought by alchemists, believed to have the
power of changing baser metals into gold
C ONNECTIONS 18
Shaw Festival Study GuideBooks & Articles
Atkinson, Brooks. “Theatre: Shaw and the Abstract Idea.” The New York Times
January 25, 1957.
Evans, T. F. In Good King Charles’s Golden Days: The Dramatist as Historian.
SHAW: The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies, 7 (1987), 259-77
Laurence, Dan. 1988. Something About Shaw. Prepared for The Academy of
The Shaw Festival with permission from Explorations in Shaw as originally com-
piled by T.V. Ontario.
Dukore, Bernard F. 1972. Bernard Shaw, Playwright. Aspects of Shavian Drama.
University of Missouri Press; Columbia.
Weinert, Friedel. 2004. The Scientist as Philosopher: Philosophical Consequences
of Great Scientific Discoveries. Springer.
Websites
Comedy
www.dbu.edu/mitchell/comedydi.htm#High%20Comedy:
Discussion Play
www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/shaw/Pygmalion.html
Enlightenment Thought
www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=447
www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/SCIREV.HTM
www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/PREPHIL.HTM
www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=22892
Sources
The Vicar of Bray
http://lit4lib.sky7.us/bray.html
Timeline
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/civilwars_timeline_noflash.shtml
C ONNECTIONS 19
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days
Pre and Post - Show Activities
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Theme 1: What if … Page
Pre-Performance
Teacher Background & Preparation 21
Warm-up: Limbo 21
Class Discussion & Brainstorming 21
Main Activity: “What if…” improvisation 22
Follow-up discussion 22
Post-Performance
Teacher Background & Preparation 23
Warm-Up: “Obsessions” Creative Writing Activity 24
Warm-Up: “Writer’s Tennis” Creative Writing Activity 24
Main Activity: Scene Writing 24
Follow-up Discussion 25
Theme 2: Comedy Styles
Pre-Performance
Teacher Background & Preparation 26
Warm-Up: Heads Up! 26
Main Activity: Forms of Comedy 27
Class Discussion Questions 27
Post-Performance
Teacher Background & Preparation 28
Class Discussion 28
Warm-Up Activity: Comedy Discussion 29
Main Activity: What I’m Really Thinking... 29
Follow-up discussion 29
Blackline Masters
Blackline Master #1 30
Blackline Master #2 31
Blackline Master #3 32
C
ONNECTIONS 20
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days - Pre-Show
Theme 1: What if...
Grades 9 — 12
Pedagogical Intent: Based on the technique of improvisation students will explore the theme of What If...
through creating scenarios in which famous people meet.
Grade: Grades 9 - 12
Subjects: Drama, Dance, English, History
Objectives and Competencies: In these activities, students will:
• explain how movement and voice communicate a role
• identify and use effective styles of collaboration in drama
• create an original or adapted dramatic presentation using a variety of strategies (eg., improvisation)
• create roles/characters using a variety of appropriate techniques
Materials: 20 slips of paper per student; hat/bag/box
Warm-Up Activity:
Limbo — In pairs, students choose to be either “A” or “B”. Student “A” sits in a chair, in limbo, unaware of set-
ting, or characters. Student “B” decides on a setting (eg. driving instructor’s car) and the two characters in-
volved in the scene (eg. driving instructor and new student driver). Student “B” enters the scene and begins to
act as their character (the driving instructor) speaking in-role to student “A” (the student driver). Student “A”
does not move or speak (remains in limbo) until he/she has discovered the identity of the two characters and
the setting. Once this has occurred, student “A” joins the scene, in-role, to contribute and end the scene.
Have partners switch places with student “B” in limbo and student “A” choosing a new setting and characters.
Class Discussion:
Shaw subtitled the play In Good King Charles’s Golden Days - A True History that Never Happened — that is,
he brings together a group of interesting people of varied backgrounds, responsibilities, and accomplishments,
some famous, some not so famous—to argue about science, culture, religion, and politics. Charlotte Shaw, al-
ways a keen critic of her husband’s work, liked the play. “Such a lot of interesting people lived then & he is
throwing them all in together to sink or swim.”
The characters in In Good King Charles’s Golden Days are figures from history and lived during the same period
in history. However, there is no record of these people ever coming together in the home of Isaac Newton in
Cambridge in the year 1680.
As a class, create a list of famous people (from today or from history) under the following headings:
•Inventors •Artists •Leaders •Religious Figures
•Rulers •Sports Figures •Scientists
Discuss: In your opinion, which 3-4 people might you bring together to generate the most interesting
discussions. Why?
C ONNECTIONS 21
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days - Pre-Show
Theme 2: What If...
Grades 9 — 12
Main Activity: Through the technique of improvisation, students will explore the What If... scenario by cre-
ating scenes involving 3-4 different famous people in various settings.
On 10 slips of paper, each student writes the names of 10 different famous people or characters (either real or
fictional).
Collect the names in a bag/hat/box.
On 10 slips of paper, each student writes different settings or locations where people might be found waiting
(for eg. dentist’s office, bus station, line for spaceship, magic potions shop). Encourage students to be creative.
Collect settings in a different container.
Working in groups of 3-4, allow each student to choose a character and a setting/location (they will not share
this information with other group members).
Two group members begin the improvisation in-role as their characters, waiting in their selected setting/
location. Each character assumes the other person is also waiting in the same location, for the same reason.
Instruct other group members to join the improvised scene.
Explain: during improvisation encourage characters to ask questions of each other and react to the situation
without giving away too obviously why each particular character is waiting.
Allow time for each group to participate
Class Discussion:
What skills are you developing as you improvise in drama?
Do you agree with the statement: “Improvising is more listening than speaking”?
How important is your belief in the imaginary situation when you are improvising?
How did that belief enable the audience to recognize various famous people and settings/locations?
Why might improvisation be essential in the training of professional actors?
Shaw believed that the purpose of theatre was not only to instruct audiences but also to expose ill-conceived
attitudes and cruel social conditions of his time. Why might Shaw write a play in which he brings together
historical characters, in a historical setting if his purpose is to bring about change in his present-day society?
C ONNECTIONS 22
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days - Post-Show
Theme 1: What If...
Grades 9 — 12
Pedagogical Intent: In this activity, students explore the What If... scenario through the creative writing
process of playwrighting.
Grade: Grades 9 - 12
Subjects: Drama, English
Objectives and Competencies: In these activities, students will:
• demonstrate an understanding of subtext, motivation, and status in the development of a character
• demonstrate an understanding of the function of the playwright in the development of an original scene or
dramatic presentation
• create an original or adapted dramatic presentation
• identify, sort, and order main ideas and supporting details for writing tasks, using a variety of strategies
Materials: paper and pens
Teacher Preparation: To ensure success with students as playwrights teachers should establish in the
classroom the following guidelines:
1. Create a safe environment where students feel free to comment on each others work in a constructive
way.
2. Create a foundation so that students have something to refer to when they are having difficulties or are
feeling ‘stuck’. Provide the following Classic 5 Act Dramatic Structure (this structure may be applied to a
scene, one act or full length play).
Introduction — Something happens
Development — There is a response to what has happened
Climax — Something massive changes, their world changes
Denouement — How do the characters respond to that change
Resolution — A reaction to what has happened, or a wrap up
3. Establish freedom of speech in which students feel safe to express themselves as they wish but make it
clear the words they choose must be justified in the writing.
Class Discussion:
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days has been described as a ‘discussion play’ in which there is no real plot,
rather captivating discussions, debates, and questions that ask the audience to critically think about such
themes as kingship, religion, art, science, and theatre.
How did Shaw incorporate the essential ingredients of suspense, conflict and tension in his ‘discussion play’?
Discuss: Every play has conflict in it, whether it be battles or struggles between characters, or inner struggles of
an individual. In comedy, the conflicts are resolved and there is a happy ending. In tragedy the conflicts are
more difficult and serious and are frequently only resolved by death.
Decide: In your opinion is In Good King Charles’s Golden Days a comedy or tragedy?
Ask: In each act, identify points of conflict. Trace how each came to be.
Ask: What do the conflicts show you about the different interests of the characters?
Ask: Do the conflicts represent ideas that Shaw is trying to explore in the play?
C ONNECTIONS 23
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days - Post-Show
Theme 2: What if...
Grades 9 — 12
Creative Writing Warm Up #1
Obsessions
Students gather in a circle with paper and pens/pencils. Instruct students to write a list of obsessions (things
they are currently obsessing about in their minds). Allow 3-4 minutes. Each student reads their list of
obsessions out loud. Instruct students to choose one obsession and write it on a separate piece of paper. Pass
the paper two people to the left. Instruct each student to write a monologue or short scene with the word
appearing in the first line. All students share what they have written out loud. Allow class to comment on one
thing they liked and/or ask one question.
Creative Writing Warm Up #2
Writer’s Tennis
In pairs, students quickly write one line at a time, passing the page back and forth until the monologue/scene
is complete. Advise students to try to avoid questions.
Main Activity
Scene Writing
In groups of 4 — 5, students discuss which famous people they would like to see together in a scene. Instruct
students to choose:
• a famous person who is living
• a figure from history
• a fictional character
Appoint one person from the group to act as secretary and record what is discussed.
Instruct each group to discuss what type of characters these people are and what type of situation they are in
using the following guidelines:
1. Assign to each character the following information:
a. Name
b. Age
c. Occupation
d. Short family biography
e. Distinguishing characteristics (physical or personality)
2. Briefly describe the relationship between the characters.
3. Choose a setting/location.
4. Choose a time period.
5. In one or two sentences describe what might be happening in the scene.
Note how each character perceives the situation and what they want out of it — at least one paragraph for
each character. Remind students that each character will have his or her own point of view about what is hap-
pening and will think that she or he knows best. Make each conflict specific to the character.
C ONNECTIONS 24
Shaw Festival Study GuideIn Good King Charles’s Golden Days - Post-Show
Theme 2: What if...
Grades 9 — 12
Main Activity cont’d
Make sure each group member has a copy of the character information. Individually, each student will:
1. Write a story in narrative form, three paragraphs in length.
• Paragraph #1 - all the characters are present and a problem is introduced.
• Paragraph #2 - one character devises a plan to deal with the problem.
• Paragraph #3 - the implementation of the plan, and its success or failure.
• Transform the story into three scenes with dialogue.
• Students read their scenes out loud.
• Students select scenes to rehearse and present.
Classroom Discussion:
• Did each of the scenes have conflict?
• Why is conflict important?
• What did each character want?
• What was preventing the characters (s) from getting what he/she wanted?
• Discuss the conflicts in the play In Good King Charles’s Golden Days.
Classroom Discussion:
Each of the characters in In Good King Charles’s Golden Days has a particular objective. Discuss the goals of
each of the following characters and the obstacles they face to achieve their goals:
King Charles II (Rowley) Isaac Newton George Fox
Nelly Mrs Basham Duchess of Cleveland
Kneller Catherine of Braganza Louise
James
C ONNECTIONS 25
Shaw Festival Study GuideYou can also read
